My husband, Bobby, is a magician who routinely performs shows throughout North East Ohio. That means that he gets paid to perform magic, usually. There are times when he does just perform for the fun of it. This is what happened when we ended up visiting our niece, Nicole, at her apartment on the campus of North Eastern University.
We were there so that Nicole could help our other niece, Courtney, with something for school. While they were working on it in her bedroom, Bobby, Michelle (Bobby’s sister) and I hung out with Nicole’s boyfriend, Luke, and one of her roommates, Nithyia. As we talked Bobby noticed a deck of cards on their TV stand. He asked Nithyia to shuffle the cards. She excitedly explained that she loved magic. She shared a story of a magic trick she had seen that blew her away. (Based on her description, it did seem pretty impressive.) Bobby said he might not be that good, but he would still do a trick for her.
In standard Bobby fashion he made a prediction and then had Nithyia shuffle the cards, make piles and “sense” when it was time to stop. At the end Bobby’s prediction was correct. It was no surprise to me, as I have watched Bobby do magic many times. However, her reaction was priceless. She was blown away, again.
Bobby did another card trick and then moved on to a mind reading illusion using one of Nithyia’s books. He correctly predicted a word from a random page that she would read. Again, her reaction was one of amazement and wonder. At this point she called her other two roommates, Jen and Jessie, into the room. She enthusiastically told them of the illusion she just watched. Then she had Bobby do another trick for them, too.
Bobby worked his magic (pun intended) and he performed another mind reading illusion and card trick for the three of them. We, Michelle, Luke and I, just watched enjoying their reaction. Jen and Jessie are engineering majors so I could see their minds working to figure out how Bobby seemed to have done the impossible.
Having watched Bobby perform magic both in paid gigs and just for fun, I always like to see people’s reaction to his illusions. It is most fun when there is a sense of amazement. I think I feel this way because that is how I feel, too. Bobby is so good at his craft and so unassuming. He down plays his ability and then freaks you out with what he does.
I kind of wonder if the stories of his magic tricks will be spread throughout the North Eastern campus. I don’t think Nithyia will forget it very soon and neither will I. By the way, if you are interested in hiring him to perform, contact me!
